Cut-aways

A cut-away is a cut that interrupts the ‘continuous’ flow of a scene usually highlighting an object/action/place.

For example in the clip above there are three cut-aways, the leg shaking, fingers tapping, and tapping the pen. These are all indications of boredom along with the continuous scene on the girl. The cut-aways just show close ups on certain actions that are going on in the scene. It adds more to a scene then just one long shot of a person talking or sitting there and helps communicate emotions of the character.

The clip above uses cut-aways to break off from the continuous sequence, with the main cut-away being the popcorn it is a go to during the scene showing the passing of time occurring making it more realistic, it also symbolises the chaos that is about to happen, as the popcorn gets bigger, you are waiting for it to explode, it builds the tension as you wait for the scene to explode from its normality. At 0:51 it cuts away to outside, this shows a change in location and can leave the viewers wondering whether this is the view that the caller is seeing. It also gives a sense of normality and peacefulness outside compared to the tension building inside.